Brewer's Gold Ale
Full Sail Brewing Company

I had this ESB as part of a sampler at Full Sail Brewing Company Riverplace in Portland, Ore.

It is a little pale for an ESB and has almost no head. It has a smell of hops, not something I would expect for an ESB, but good nonetheless. Its taste is also good: malty and bitter leaning more to the bitter side with a nice hop aftertaste. The body is also good.

Overall this is one of Full Sail's better brews.

Had on tap at Redbones yesterday...nobody drinks this Oregon? There's only one other review so far...Anyway, Pour was very light amber in color, with a thin white head on top. Aroma took it's cue from a few different places: I picked up bubblegum, fruit, and yes, some hoppiness. Medium mouthfeel, small sharp carbonation, prickly. Tastewise, I enjoyed the citrusy hops, followed by the malt in the finish...nice role reversal.

The tap handle reads "the brewer's gold ale," making a point of adding the definite article, as well as utilizing the e.e. cummings method of capitalization. I've decided to not include "the" in the title of the beer since it would only cause confusion. I had a similar quandary in deciding which style to put it in; I seem to remember it describing itself as a "bronze ale" which described both its color and its metallic flavor - but this could be a figment of my imagination since it contradicts the "gold" in the title. Could it be considered an alt, with its malt profile? Or perhaps a bitter, with its assertively aromatic but delicate hops? I reckon not, since there is nothing German nor English about the beer. It is decidedly American, so I copped out and decided to rank it under the catch-all APA category, of which there is enough variety that "the brewer's gold ale" could fit into it without too much fuss. The beer is bronze in color, with a small rim of foam. The malt flavors are metallic copper, perhaps mineral, and there's quite a bit of green, grassy hop flavor. It's appealing but not fully integrated, and the hops could easily be sidelined into oblivion if you've just drunk a hoppy beer before sampling this. The malts need time to stretch out, and the pint needs to warm a bit before they lose some of their unappealing metallic flavor. On the whole, the beer is thin-bodied and doesn't really warrant the titular "gold." In my mind it is much more deserving of the aforementioned bronze.